A Project for an intervention at the Biennale di Venezia.(from an original idea by John Gian)

1. The “retro” Project will take place in the park outside the boundary walls of the Biennale Exhibition space on the Island of Sant’Elena during the whole period of the Biennale di Architettura 2006 Exhibition.2. Every artist invited can extend the invitation to another artist.3. The only condition for taking part in the Project is for the artist to be physically present on the spot sometime during the period of the exhibition (September 6th - November 19th).4. That presence will have to be documented by means of images, and/or texts, through the testimony of another artist.5. Every artist is totally free to choose the duration and tipology of his/her intervention.6. After their interventions the participant artists will send a testimony of their work to the “retro” collection-point.7. An on-line catalogue will be produced on a web site (expressly created for the occasion) which will be weekly updated during the whole period of the exhibition.

- not a museum but a presence- as a space where to meet, confront and share

Left 3 shrines / 1) stone steps/ found in park, for LB / to help her ascend / I wrote 'for Lucia' on a piece of yellow paper / found in park / & put it under the stones / 2) Nice large leaf /Yellow for Franco Beltrametti. Wrote for Franco on the leaf. / 3) l White triangular stone / feather & 2 laurel leaves for Steve Lacy. Sat on step, just below srhines & sang xitro / prayer cycle for the dead. Some people watching quietly. Should I do the mudra of Vajrasattva I wondered / I did & they didn't seem to mind.

Left some graffiti on the wall behind the step & shrines. Something abt., those that are there are also here/ we are HEAR. After this my heart felt totally open. Ritual is toally natural but 'religions' get organized / like banks.

I didn't have a camera w. me but if you go out there you might still see the shrines / they were on the 2nd. step to the right of the 'door'. You cld. photograph the graffiti & decipher the poems, ifyou like.

Part II

I returned to Venice / determined this time to paste onto the wall a poem written for La Monte Young's composition Just for Charles in the Romantic Chord - The poem published as a small scroll, ca 4 feet long, which I thught wld. look nice, pasted like a poster, w. some 'cut ups' of Indian sculpture, also related to La Monte & Marian. But the space itself, created on my previous visit, determined that I only sat & prayed - . My friend Rosaria did the same/ we added a candle to the orignal platform' located on steps leading to the wall ' & upon which the 3 shrines had been previously constructed. The shrines, made of feathers, stone, leaves & a few smple words, had more or less disintegrted / fragments remained. It was interesting to note that the energy of even such simple constructions in some sense fixed itself to the place, this cld. be called 'an architecture of emptiness'. I don't know if the organizers (of the Biennale) wld. agree. Rosaria & I prayed for our 'dead'/ ...I went back a few days later & just 'sat'... the wall had become my point of departure.